Luoshu's unobservable anti-meme state had a limited duration. He couldn't afford to wander slowly through the underground nuclear arsenal, so after figuring out the situation, he headed straight for the warhead storage warehouse.
Utilizing the permissions granted by the host system and the key to SCP-005, he opened the warehouse doors, only to be stunned by the sight before him.
This warehouse stored at least a thousand nuclear warheads of various types!
Tactical nukes, atomic bombs, neutron bombs, hydrogen bombs—you name it, they had it.
The New Continent possessed over 6,000 nuclear warheads, and nearly a fifth of them were stored here.
Even if the majority were low-yield tactical warheads, detonating all of them would be enough to blow the entire state of Nevada into a giant crater.
The subsequent crustal movements would be sufficient to sink half of California into the ocean, triggering a series of apocalyptic-level climate changes.
Luoshu truly couldn't understand why the New Continent government would do this.
The purpose of having nuclear weapons was deterrence, not actually destroying a country. Having enough was sufficient; what was the point of having so many?
At this rate, humanity would end up destroying itself one day, without any need for Keter-class anomalies to intervene.
Of course, the conditions for detonating a nuclear warhead were extremely stringent, so there was no need to worry about accidental discharge or misfires.
Therefore, besides stealing the warheads, Luoshu also needed to steal the specially designed fuses; otherwise, they would be useless even if acquired.
Originally, Luoshu had only intended to take eight or ten tactical nukes as a token gesture, but after seeing the stockpile in this warehouse, he changed his mind.
Rather than leaving these things here to plague the world, it was better to take them all away!
He first opened a photographic pathway to the underground facility of SCP-100, then activated the Chaos Logistics Captain's volume scaling ability to shrink the warheads one by one to a size small enough to pass through the photographic channel.
After this operation, the warheads' volume was reduced, but their weight remained. Luoshu alone couldn't move them.
So, the final step was handled by the pickup truck Transformer, which stuffed the shrunken warheads one by one into the photographic pathway.
On the other side of the pathway, several Transformers served as movers, transporting the warheads to the deepest underground level for storage.
After sending roughly a hundred warheads of varying yields to SCP-100, Luoshu closed this photographic pathway and instead pulled out a briefcase from Site-19.
SCP-101, The Big Mouth Bag!
Next, he tossed the remaining nearly thousand warheads into the bag's one-dimensional portal.
Destroy the evidence!
Half an hour later, the Nevada Test Site's nuclear arsenal was picked clean—not a single fuse remained.
Luoshu looked with satisfaction at the empty warehouse. He had, in a way, made a tremendous contribution to human society by helping the New Continent dispose of over a thousand nuclear warheads. It was a pity the other warheads were scattered among various military forces across the New Continent; otherwise, he wouldn't have minded destroying them all.
Hmm, maybe he could do that another time, if the opportunity arose.
Only by pulling out all the New Continent's fangs could this world become stable and harmonious.
After clearing out the warhead warehouse, Luoshu left the underground nuclear arsenal feeling quite pleased.
Several hours later, by the time he was almost back at sea, the theft of the warheads was finally discovered.
The officials in charge of the Nevada Test Site were utterly terrified when faced with the empty warehouse.
It wasn't as if the New Continent had never lost a nuclear warhead before—a small tactical warhead had once ended up in the Middle East.
And whether that loss was real or staged, no one could say for sure.
But losing even one warhead was a major incident, let alone losing over a thousand at once!
If all the warheads from the Nevada Test Site arsenal were used, whether scattered or集中引爆 (concentrated and detonated), it would be enough to destroy the world.
And now, they were all gone…
The base leaders were scared out of their wits.
But there was no hiding something like this. They had no choice but to honestly report it to the current junta leader, General Bowe.
General Bowe was stunned for a long moment upon hearing the news before he could collect himself.
Once he did, he roared about having everyone responsible at the Nevada Test Site executed, while his assistant arranged his itinerary. He then rushed to Yucca Airport aboard his private jet.
A few hours later, General Bowe arrived at the scene of the theft with professional agents from the FBI and CIA.
The agents finished their investigation, huddled together to discuss for a while, and then pushed forward one unlucky fellow to report their findings to General Bowe.
This unlucky man hesitantly approached General Bowe, hemming and hawing for a while before finally speaking: "We believe… this was… well, a paranormal event!"
General Bowe, already furious, drew his pistol and aimed it at the man's head, yelling, "Stop talking nonsense! What did you actually find out? Tell me the truth!"
The unlucky man had no choice but to come clean: "We found only one set of footprints at the scene, and the other belongs to a… Transformer…"
The moment he heard the keyword "Transformer," General Bowe already guessed who the culprit was.
More than anger, what he felt now was fear!
That thief was someone even The Administrator of the Foundation couldn't handle!
The unlucky man continued: "There were no signs of the warheads being dragged or moved… It's as if they vanished into thin air…"
General Bowe had no patience left to listen to this. He turned away and quietly dialed "The Administrator's" number. As soon as the call connected, he迫不及待地叫道 (blurted out impatiently): "Luoshu has been to the Nevada Test Site nuclear arsenal! Over a thousand warheads were looted!"
Even "The Administrator," the person in this world with the most experience with nuclear explosions, was stunned for a long time upon hearing that Luoshu had made off with a thousand warheads at once.
He had been fighting "The One Who Reveals The Truth" for so long, but this was the first time the other party had done something like this.
What was he trying to do?
Mutually assured destruction?
"The Administrator" pondered for a long time but couldn't figure out why Luoshu would take so many warheads at once.
Rubbing his temples in pain, he finally spoke to General Bowe, who had been waiting on the line: "Understood. Keep this confidential for now! No one is to speak a word of it without my permission! If this gets out, you're all dead!"
Then he hung up.
Not only must the public not know about the theft, but "The Administrator" didn't even plan to let the Foundation know.
Although "The Administrator" didn't know why Luoshu was so greedy as to take this many warheads in one go, one thing was certain: these warheads were meant to be used against the Foundation.
If the Foundation, from top to bottom, found out about this, who knows what levels of panic would ensue.
It was entirely possible the Foundation could collapse because of this!
This was nuclear deterrence in its purest form!
The Eastern power, Huaguo, only possessed two to three hundred nuclear warheads, yet neither the New Continent nor Russia dared to look down on the country.
And now, Luoshu directly held over a thousand warheads, instantly catapulting him into the global nuclear top three. A mere cough from him could make countless people tremble in fear.
"The Administrator" was powerless against this. He could only pray that the Memetic Longinus would deal Luoshu a fatal blow as soon as possible!
If he had known that Luoshu had actually only taken a little over a hundred warheads and had merely been performing a voluntary service for the New Continent government by downsizing its nuclear arsenal, he probably would have laughed in his dreams.
Just as "The Administrator" was worrying about Luoshu possessing a massive nuclear arsenal, Luoshu had already returned to SCP-100.
Standing in the deepest nuclear storage vault of the underground facility, looking at the hundred-plus warheads neatly stacked before him, Luoshu felt deeply satisfied.
Behind him, Jeanne watched his back with a worried expression, finally unable to hold back her question: "You brought back so many nuclear warheads… you're not planning to have every Transformer carry one, are you?"
In that moment, the young girl pictured in her mind the image of Luoshu leading an army of Transformers to rule the world through nuclear threat—the very image of a great demon king.